Sunrise begins with Leafpool repeating a long-used ritual to send Ashfur to StarClan. During the process, she discovers a tuft of fur in Ashfur's claws, and she knows whose it is, although she does not say.

ThunderClan discusses Ashfur's murder, and many think that a WindClan cat killed him since he was found on the WindClan border. To find out, Firestar sends a patrol to WindClan, but Onestar denies the possibility. As the patrol leaves, Ashfoot tells ThunderClan that she sighted Sol near the sight of Ashfur's dead body, and this leads to the thought that Sol killed Ashfur.

Firestar sends Birchfall, Brambleclaw, Brackenfur, Hazeltail, Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze to the sun-drown-place to find Sol. The patrol finds Sol in the Twolegplace where Purdy lives. Brambleclaw persuades Purdy to live in the Clan as an elder. Both Sol and Purdy agree to go to ThunderClan. When the patrol returns to the Clan, Sol denies killing Ashfur and is kept under guard in the camp.

Being the most curious of the Three, Jayfeather tries to find out who his true parents are. When asking around about his birth, Mousefur reveals that Leafpool accidentally put a strange herb in Mousefur's tansy soon after Jayfeather's birth. After looking through herbs in the medicine cat's den and with herbs sticking to his pelt, he goes to Mousefur to deliver some fresh-kill. Mousefur says that a certain herb sticking to his fur is the mystery herb, but Jayfeather does not know what it is. To find out, he asks Littlecloud when the medicine cats meet at the Moonpool. The ShadowClan medicine cat recognizes it as parsley, a herb that stops the milk of a cat whose kits die. Jayfeather remembers that while going back to the camp after birth, there is another cat with him besides Squirrelflight: Leafpool, Jayfeather's true mother.

At the camp, Hollyleaf too learns that her mother is Leafpool by learning Leafpool came back to the camp the day Hollyleaf and her littermates were born. In response, Leafpool tells the truth: Hollyleaf killed Ashfur, and the tuft of fur found in Ashfur's paw belonged to Hollyleaf.

Angered that StarClan is still keeping the father of the Three a secret, Yellowfang goes to Jayfeather in a dream, tells him, "The time for lies and secrets is over. The truth must come out. StarClan was wrong not to tell you who you were a long time ago," and leaves him a crow's feather, showing their father is Crowfeather of WindClan.

At the Gathering, Hollyleaf reveals the secret about her and her brothers' parents. Crowfeather denies that he ever has any kits besides Breezepelt, and he states that Leafpool and their kits mean nothing to him. Breezepelt and Nightcloud are both outraged about never being informed. Although Hollyleaf feels proud of finally revealing the secret, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are both confused and angry. Seeing how everyone feels she did something wrong, Hollyleaf runs off and Jayfeather and Lionblaze chase her and they realized that she was running to the underground tunnels, but when she reaches the tunnel it collapses on top of her.

Jayfeather realizes that only he and Lionblaze are part of the prophecy's Three. However, as he watches Whitewing's kits walking in the clearing, he realizes that one of the kits will be the third, being the granddaughter of Cloudtail who is the nephew of Firestar.

A lukewarm review from Children's Literature stated, "While the numerous characters may be confusing to those unfamiliar with the series, it will not take many pages for them to become enthralled with the adventures of the cats and anxiously be awaiting future books." [2]